Emma eBook

It must be her ardent wish that Harriet might be disappointed;
and she hoped, that when able to see them together
again, she might at least be able to ascertain what
the chances for it were.—­She should see
them henceforward with the closest observance; and
wretchedly as she had hitherto misunderstood even
those she was watching, she did not know how to admit
that she could be blinded here.—­ He was
expected back every day. The power of observation
would be soon given—­frightfully soon it
appeared when her thoughts were in one course.
In the meanwhile, she resolved against seeing Harriet.—­
It would do neither of them good, it would do the subject
no good, to be talking of it farther.—­She
was resolved not to be convinced, as long as she could
doubt, and yet had no authority for opposing Harriet’s
confidence. To talk would be only to irritate.—­She
wrote to her, therefore, kindly, but decisively, to
beg that she would not, at present, come to Hartfield;
acknowledging it to be her conviction, that all farther
confidential discussion of one topic had better
be avoided; and hoping, that if a few days were allowed
to pass before they met again, except in the company
of others—­she objected only to a tete-a-tete—­they
might be able to act as if they had forgotten the
conversation of yesterday.—­Harriet submitted,
and approved, and was grateful.

This point was just arranged, when a visitor arrived
to tear Emma’s thoughts a little from the one
subject which had engrossed them, sleeping or waking,
the last twenty-four hours—­Mrs. Weston,
who had been calling on her daughter-in-law elect,
and took Hartfield in her way home, almost as much
in duty to Emma as in pleasure to herself, to relate
all the particulars of so interesting an interview.

Mr. Weston had accompanied her to Mrs. Bates’s,
and gone through his share of this essential attention
most handsomely; but she having then induced Miss
Fairfax to join her in an airing, was now returned
with much more to say, and much more to say with satisfaction,
than a quarter of an hour spent in Mrs. Bates’s
parlour, with all the encumbrance of awkward feelings,
could have afforded.

A little curiosity Emma had; and she made the most
of it while her friend related. Mrs. Weston
had set off to pay the visit in a good deal of agitation
herself; and in the first place had wished not to
go at all at present, to be allowed merely to write
to Miss Fairfax instead, and to defer this ceremonious
call till a little time had passed, and Mr. Churchill
could be reconciled to the engagement’s becoming
known; as, considering every thing, she thought such
a visit could not be paid without leading to reports:—­
but Mr. Weston had thought differently; he was extremely
anxious to shew his approbation to Miss Fairfax and
her family, and did not conceive that any suspicion
could be excited by it; or if it were, that it would
be of any consequence; for “such things,”
he observed, “always got about.”